On a continent where the four seasons are tied to each country's traveling rulers, a Summer tragedy causes the Winter King to withhold his season from his neighbors—but without Winter, the other seasons can't turn.
Aveline, a half-Summer, half-Winter pariah, has no place in her country. She's mocked in Summer as The Glass Witch for her Wintry looks and magic, while Winter travelers always thought her a disturbing mutt. But when her emperor finds her barely surviving the endless Summer, he tells her that the mother she loves is dead—and it's Winter's fault. Only Aveline, the Summer woman with a Winter face, can end the seasonal standstill.
Vengeful, Aveline sneaks into Winter as a fake contestant in the king's bridal competition to kill him, only for a failed Winter assassin to shatter her plans. Aveline is stuck unarmed in the castle, and worse, to stay competing while finding her plan B, she has to court the king in earnest. But how long can she pretend before her identity is discovered—and the seasons' fate thrown into question?